Surprise!
by OkamiMoonshine
Summary: And that's what you'll get. This is framed WAY after the chuunin exams. Oh, and the person in here isn't me. I just didn't mean to make my penname the same...


Disclaimer: I do not own anything from the Naruto series.

Sitting in a tall oak tree, I was slowly falling into slumber. A trail was close by, but it was too late in the night for anyone to be walking it, so I didn't worry about people disturbing me. The sky and moon was blocked by the leaves and branches.

Nothing seemed to move for a long time when I was half-asleep. Peace was all I could sense. Nothing disturbed the late night here.

Or so I thought.

_Twang…_

The sound of a bow's recoil cut through the silence. Someone trying not to be heard moved through the forest just as I heard the arrow hit the tree I was sitting on with a distinct _thunk_.

Still as the tree I was sitting on, I looked out to where I heard the movement.

_There._ The flash of metal that was hit by moonlight slipping through gaps in the trees warned me of the approaching stranger. Sniffing the air, I knew it was a neighboring night scout, but scouting for what, I wasn't too sure. Making sure my hood covered my head well, I flinted toward the stranger, slipping behind him.

"A little late to be going for an evening walk, isn't it?" I whispered. He turned around and gave me a good look of his headband. Mist ninja.

"If you just tell me what you're here for, I might not have to harm you too badly," I told him, but he already had out a kunai knife and was about to slash me. Grabbing his wrist quickly, I hissed, "Or if you want me to do this the hard way, I will break every bone in your body…one at a time."

He didn't seem frightened, yet that didn't surprise me. Most shanobi—even on threat of death—didn't get scared easily. Some did, but they were mostly younger.

Before the mist ninja could slip from my grasp, I snapped his thumb which held the kunai, and he promptly disappeared.

_It was a doppelganger, a simple doppelganger._ I shot back, out of sight from where I had been standing. Checking again if my hood was still covering my head, I slipped through the trees fast enough not to be seen.

Once at the front gate of the Leaf Village, I turned around to see if I had been followed. To anyone else, this was something an amateur would do, which would give me an advantage. Checking the trees with my eyes again, I saw nothing out of place—nothing covered in chakra, the tell-tale sign of someone hiding.

"Humph," I whispered. The he hadn't followed me…

A kunai struck the dirt right by my foot, and I jumped to the nearest tree before I noticed it was one of our kunai which told me my shift was over.

Throwing my own kunai—which had carvings on them for wings, wolf, and blood so that everyone knew they were mine, my shuriken also had the carvings on them too—I showed that I saw the meaning…and that someone was out there.

Promptly, one of my "co-workers" appeared where my kunai had struck and walked over to where I was sitting in the tree.

"So someone's out there?" he asked. It was Iruka, which surprised me a little; Iruka rarely when on the night-shift guard.

"Obviously," I sighed, looked over my shoulder. "So this means that I can go to bed?"

"Yeah, and get some dinner," he informed me. Gladly, I jumped into our village. I had been on the shift since about six in the afternoon, and it was almost one in the morning now. Even though I didn't want to admit it, I was _tired_, and listening for enemies just made me sleepy—especially when nothing was happening.

Walking through the silent streets of the Leaf Village, I looked up at the moon. It was half-full and no clouds dared to block any light given off.

As I watched the moon, I didn't notice a genin coming up behind me until he was a few feet away.

"Kid, don't push me right now," I warned him hollowly. I just wanted to go home and sleep, maybe even eat something if I don't pass out in whatever it was.

"How am I so sure that you're not an enemy?" he asked. Sighing, I turned around to stare at the kid. He was about half a foot shorter than me with wild blonde hair and whisker-looking scar-like things on his cheeks. He had a headband, so my thought of him being an amateur was correct. His blue eyes were in a hard glare.

"Because I live here, kid," I told him, hiding the tired tone in my voice.

"How can I be so sure about _that_?" he asked as if this was an interrogation.

"If I was an enemy, I wouldn't be talking to you, squirt," I snapped and walked on. I was in no mood to talk to little kids. Then something hit me, and I turned around and had him in a choke-hold.

"Don't touch my hood," I snarled into his face. He had tried to sneak up and snatch off my hooded cape. He looked a little surprised, but didn't say a word. Letting him go, I bolted to my balcony, which was right above where I had stood.

"Good night, child, now go to bed," I snapped and opened my sliding-glass door. Shutting it behind me, I walked over to the bed and passed out as soon as I hit the covers, not bothering to take off anything—not even my shoes.

Sometime later—when the sun came up—I woke to someone knocking on my door so hard and urgent, I thought it would fall to the ground.

"It's open!" I screamed as I pulled my head up from my god-sent pillow. In walked Iruka with a look on his face that reminded me of the kid I met last night.

"Oki," he said in greeting before pulling me to my feet. "Good, you're dressed."

"Still wearing my crap from last night's long guard, Iruka," I told him, rubbing my eyes tiredly. "I really don't want to go on guard right now, if that's what you're here for."

"No, no, we just need your confirmation on something," he told me as he dragged me out of my house.

Pulling back from him, I gave him a shocked look, "_What?!?_"

He sighed and explained, "We caught one of the nin of the Mist Village, and we think it's the same one you ran into last night."

"You woke me to tell me we caught someone trying to sneak in?" I was glaring now. "You _woke_ me to tell me something pointless?!?"

"Oki…" he tugged on my hand like an impatient child.

"Iruka, you _know_ how I take to be woken early in the morning after a graveyard guard shift!" I yelled, not moving one step. He gave me a pleading look.

"Hokage told me to get you no matter what," he elaborated. "It's important, I swear."

"This better be," I mumbled, and we ran half-way across town, to the Hokage's office.

The never-ending piles of paperwork still lined the room from the last time I had walked in. Hokage—I wasn't here long enough to memorize her name—was sitting in her chair, waiting patiently for us.

"Come," she said, walking to a side door which went to a torture chamber—don't ask me why there's one right near her office, but there is—into which we followed.

There, sitting on a chair, was a man of about twenty years. He wasn't the one I had run into the night before, but I could tell who it was from the white hair any day.

He lifted his head as we walked in, then his blank blue eyes shifted into a glare as soon as they rested on me.

"Traitor," he hissed as I sat in one of the chairs that weren't designed for holding down someone.

Hokage looked to me and asked, "Do you know this man?"

"He's not the one I ran into the night before, no, but…"

Hokage gave me a hard look and waited for me to finish. "I do know him."

"Who is he? We haven't been able to get a peep out of him until you walked in," she explained. I turned to the mist ninja, just to see him still glaring at me.

"Give me a few minutes with him, to confirm my thoughts," I told her, getting serious right away—all lingering tiredness gone.

"Fine, but we're going to come in after five minutes," she warned, motioning for everyone to follow her. She knew how I worked, and if I wanted information, I would get it. What she didn't know was that I _wasn't_ going to torture this particular shanobi.

Turning to him, I moved to the chair sitting right in front of him.

"I'm surprised _you_ got caught, Fuyudori," I sighed, putting my head in my hands.

"What are you doing here, Okami?" he asked me, using my full name, with full hate in his words.

"I moved here when mist threw me out, thinking I was too weak to do them much good," I growled at him. Without a thought, I made sure my hood was still covering my head. He noticed the movement with a smile—which was more like an evil grin.

"Do the leaf ninnies know about you?" he asked with acid still dripping from his words. My head snapped up and I glared at him.

"I'm here to get information from you, Fuyudori, not the other way around," I snarled. His grin widened.

"So…what do you want to know? Are you seriously going to tell all of it to _them_?" he asked, nodding toward the door.

"My loyalties lie with the Leaf Village now, Fuyudori, not with Mist Village anymore." I gave him a hard look and continued on, "What were you doing in the woods?"

"Trying to gather information on the Leaf Village, Okami," Fuyudori told with confidence, but I knew he was keeping something from me.

"Don't make this any harder than it has to be Fuyudori," I growled in a low, dangerous voice. "I don't want to hurt you."

"Which would make it a little less painful when you have to," he explained as if telling me that the sky is blue.

"Not exactly; since I was thrown out, I've hardened some," I told him, lifting my eyes to his, giving him a firm stare. "I'm far stronger than I was."

A knock on the door told me someone was coming in. A man a little taller than me walked through the door, his silvery hair slanted to one side and his headband covered one eye. A mask covered the rest of his face—except for one eye.

"What do you need?" I asked without taking my eyes away from Fuyudori's.

In a calm, soft voice that sounded like a smile, he answered. "Hokage wants to know if you're done with the prisoner."

"I've gotten nothing useful out of him, nothing that we don't know already," I told him with a sigh, ripping my purple eyes from Fuyudori's blue ones. "And who might you be?"

"Kakashi, a jounin of considerable skill," Fuyudori spat in the direction of the jounin, who looked a little surprised to see him speaking.

"How did you get him to talk?"

"I asked questions," I answered haltingly. "Am I done here? Iruka woke me up early because of this man."

"Sorry, but you can't leave just yet," Kakashi told me. "You still need to document what you heard."

"Oh, fine," I sighed, getting up and walking out the door the jounin had walked through, leaving him to take care of Fuyudori, who was bound to escape anyway. He was always as slippery as an eel.

Waiting outside the room was one of Hokage's scribes and Hokage herself.

"What did he say?"

"His name is Fuyudori of the Mist Village. There's not much to him, really. He was on a mission to collect information about the village, miss," I told her in a tired voice.

"Is that all you could get out of him?" she asked.

"I didn't torture him, and that's what I got from him," I explained. Sighing, I gave her a look that said I was still sleepy. "Can I just go home? I was on the late shift last night."

She gave in with a smile. "Go ahead. We'll get what else we need from him."

Nodding, I left and was in my bed within ten minutes.

Later that day, I heard another knock on my door.

"In a minute!" I called out groggily, still sort of half-asleep. As you can see, I'm not a wake-up-and-feel-ready-to-do-anything person. Once I checked that my hood—which I kept on—was covering my head, I opened the door to see the silver-haired man in front of me again.

"Yo," I told him with a wave. "What's the matter?"

"Hokage Tsunade sent me," he said in his calm, I-might-be-smiling voice.

"Is it about Fuyudori?" I asked.

"No, but she thanks you for getting him to start talking. We didn't get much out of him after what you got, though. She wanted me to see if you wanted to get a squad when the new cadets graduate," Kakashi told me.

I brightened considerably and gave him a huge smile, "I've been waiting for something like this…but why are you here?"

"She said that you could watch me teach squad seven some, to know what you're getting into."

"Sure, sure," I was still smiling. I always wanted a squad to myself, but in the Mist Village, they thought I was too weak, and in the Leaf Village, they didn't trust me too much. But finally I was able to get some cadets of my own. Looking up at Kakashi, I thought about what Fuyudori had said the night before. Something about him being a well-known jounin, but he didn't look like he was a person of considerable skill. Then again, many people didn't look dangerous, but would be able to kill you in seconds. "When do we leave?"

"Now," he told me before running off to wherever his team was. I cursed, shut my door, and chased after him.

"Hey, Oki," Kakashi stopped in a tree—I had chased him to the tree-line before he stopped—and turned to me.

"What?"

"I have to warn you. These kids are a little…unique."

"Good unique, or bad?"

"I will let you decide that for your own," he told me, before starting another mad-dash. Falling behind him, I noticed that we were running toward a clearing that I knew of. When we broke through the trees, I could see three kids standing around; one of them looked like he was in a fierce argument with another kid, though the other didn't really wanna fight.

The one that wanted to argue had blonde hair…the same kid I had run into last night.

_Well, looks like the fates just want to test my patients today,_ I thought with a sigh and looked to the other two. One was a pink-haired girl, who looked a bit angry at the blonde, but all the same looked like she wanted to glomp the other child, who had black-blue hair and a perpetual bad attitude.

"Naruto, just quit it!" the pink-haired girl practically screamed at the blonde. She quieted up real quick when she saw us coming.

"Sakura, Sasuke, and Naruto, meet one of my friends," at that, I snorted, "She will be with us for a while."

"Why's that, sensei?" Sakura—the pink-haired girl—asked politely. Somehow I knew that she would get on my nerves by the end of all this.

Before Kakashi could say a word, I said—almost coldly—"Why do you need to know?"

"Information is best shared with a team, than kept from all and losing a fight because of it," she replied instantly. This one—Sakura—was brain-smart, but did she have what it took? I could see right away that the blonde—Naruto—was trouble and a little too wanting to prove himself to everyone. Also, the Sasuke boy was looking at me like I was a fascinating bug, which creeped me out. There was something about him that wasn't right…but I had no time to think it over now.

"You're Sakura…" I waved my hand to show that I wanted her to continue her name.

"Haruno," she told me. "What about you? Who are you?"

Sighing, I gave her a straight answer—the first one, probably the last too—"Oki Moonshine."

"Moonshine? That's uncommon," she commented.

"Not where I'm from," I snapped back, but turned to Naruto and Sasuke before she could start questioning my origin. "And what about you two? What're your full names?"

"Sasuke Uchiha," the dark-haired boy replied coolly. I was shocked for a moment, but shook myself internally and looked to the blonde.

"Uzumaki," he said, which made me smile. He was trying so hard to be big and bad, but I knew he wasn't all that seasoned just by looking at him. He had power, all right, but he didn't know how to harness it. Almost like the Uchiha, but at least Sasuke knew what he was doing…so far.

I turned to Kakashi, who was now smiling.

"Now that all that's over, we can start on some training," he told Team Seven. They nodded in unison and waited further instruction. Impressed, I leapt away and sat on a tree limb as easily as breathing. The Uchiha child was still watching me with benign interest, so I absent-mindedly checked to see if my hood was still up.

Pulling out some bells, it was almost as if they had done this before. All of them scattered quickly, hidden themselves well. I heard one of them come behind me, probably hiding in my shadow or using my movement to hide their own. Kakashi pulled out a book, Icha-Icha Paradise. The little pervert.

Making myself alert to my surroundings, I found that it was the pink-haired girl, Sakura, hiding her movement with my own. As soon as I stopped moving my legs, she was off again, looking for a better spot.

Some kunai and shrunken came flying out from a bush, which Kakashi dodged easily, but he didn't see the trap until he had only a few seconds to react. I giggled at the blonde's surprise when Kakashi went _poof_ and a tree stump came into view out of the smoke. Hearing the bells jingle to my left, I sped off to find the silver-haired perv.

"Hi Kakashi," I said with a smile and wave, coming up from behind him. He didn't jump in surprise or have any look of shock on his face. "Is this something they've done before?"

"Yes," he told me, still looking at his book. It made me chuckle, but then an idea came to me.

"Let's make this more interesting to them," I commented, snatching away one of the bells easily, tying it loosely around my wrist.

He smirked—or as far as I could see, since his face was covered—and nodded. Then promptly disappeared.

I scooted off to lie under some shade and look like I was resting, with the bell in plain sight. I heard—and smelled—Naruto and Kakashi fighting near some river close-by, and noticed that someone was watching me instead of them.

"Uchiha, come on out," I called out, my eyes still closed. Opening them, I saw Sasuke step out from some bushy-looking leaves on a tree. Giving him a weary smile, I stood and meandered over. I waved my arm with the bell on it, making it jingle. "Want this?"

"Why are you taunting me with that?" he asked, before lunging with a kunai in his hand. I didn't even make a move towards mine and stepped away from him. Tapping into my chakra, I ran up a tree and stood upside-down, making sure that my hood didn't show anything. Before I could make another move, he was behind me—right-side up—and was about to whip his hand around for the bell when I pushed off from the tree.

This made him snag my hood, ripping it clean off.

"Damn!" I screamed, and flinted into the deep trees, but I didn't know the forest all that well, and I ran smack into the fight between Naruto and Kakashi, which was easy to see who had won—Kakashi had Naruto tied upside-down by his foot, dangling from a tree, which looked to have happened often, because Naruto didn't look surprised, just angry.

_I_ damn well looked surprised, and lunged for the river. I dove for it, hoping that no one would see anything in too much detail—but I knew it was false hope. As the water came over my head, I took off my (un)hooded-jacket and wrapped it over my head like a do-rag, leaving my long white hair with blue streak to flow freely in the water.

Since I could take all I could take with holding my breath, I came up for air. Sakura was hidden skillfully in a near by tree, which meant that only I could see her. Kakashi was looking at the river with interest, since my actions weren't normal for anyone—except maybe someone on fire…

The Uchiha child was also hidden somewhere—I could smell him, but not see him. Glaring at Kakashi, I swam to the edge of the river and hopped out. The bell was still fastened to my wrist, and it jingled half-heartedly when I moved my right hand.

"Damn," I said softly, but I knew he could hear me.

"Anything interesting happen? And why is your coat around your head?"

"Don't ask a question to me, because you know damn well I won't answer them," I snapped, marching over to him. He chuckled and looked back to his book. The Uchiha child lunged out at us, aiming for Kakashi instead of me, which left…

Sakura saw her chance and came after me, but that only ticked me off a little. She was good with chakra control, and smarts, but I noticed that she was a little slow in her movements, unsure sometimes. Naruto, I noticed as we fought, already cut himself down.

When I turned to look for him—I had thrown Sakura a good distance—I had taken my eyes off her for longer than merited, which she took advantage of. My coat fell from my head, making the noise around me amplified as my ears were free. I turned toward the girl without any thought to my head. She had stopped and stood stock still, staring at my head.

"Wha…?" she trailed off, which brought the boys to attention. Everyone in the clearing—since Naruto had decided to join the fray—was staring at my head, to which two black wolf's ears were perked up, listening intently for any sound. I could feel the blush burning up my cheeks, and I took a step back.

Kakashi recovered quickest and sighed. "Is this why you had a hood on this whole time?"

"No damn," I told him, my voice small and weak to my own ears. "It's not exactly something you share with people you barely know."

"What about the village…the Hokage?" he persisted, as if I would have told them.

"No and no," then I shut up and looked at the kids. The blonde looked like someone had knocked him over the head, but he hadn't passed out. Sakura was open-mouthed and looked tempted to feel them to make sure they were real—and yes, I did get that a lot.

The Uchiha child actually had a facial expression besides boredom! His eyes reflected shock and surprise, but his mouth was at a firm line.

"What?" I snapped at him. Everyone else was being predictable, but this child was confusing me. "What's up your ass?"

Naruto recovered to answer that, "A tree, probably."

That made me howl with laughter. "Well that tree must be firmly and tightly up there, because face it, kid, you are just way too uptight!"

"Well," Sasuke finally said, his face showing more aggravation, "It's just a surprise to see someone with dog—"

"Wolf."

"—ears. It's definitely something you don't see daily," he finished.

Putting my hands on my hips, I looked over the group again. Sakura still looked shocked, but everyone else was calm again. I still wasn't though. I spared Kakashi a glance, "Don't tell anyone, or I will hunt you down and kill you myself."

"Elaborate," he commented with a smile—again, I couldn't see the smile; I just guessed it was there.

"I could go into detail, but that might scare the children," at that, Naruto made a noise of irritation. "Detail that is normally only seen in a torture chamber."

Kakashi was still smiling when he replied, "Since that is your specialty."

At that, Sakura shuddered and asked, "You're…specialty…is torture?"

"Life isn't pretty, hun, so I do what I have to do for information," I told her blatantly. "I am also a master at keeping information hidden, if I do say so myself."

"Like the fact you're not fully human?" Kakashi asked.

"Who isn't?" I retorted. I noticed that Naruto shuddered out of the corner of my eye. There was something about him, too, that I couldn't put my finger on. Something different…something like…

"Will you tell us how you came to have these ears?" Sakura asked. Girl of a million questions she was.

"I was born with them," I said with a shrug. "Have no clue who my parents were."

"Is there anything else that you have failed to tell the Hokage when she found you half-dead in the woods?" Kakashi asked. I flinched at that, since Mrs. Hokage _had_ found me just like that. I had been banished from the Mist Village until I got stronger…or died. Don't ask—the Nin of the Mist are a little weird like that. The strongest survived and the weak, well, they just perished slowly or learned how to be strong.

"Yes, in fact, there are a few other things she will not hear from me, or anyone else for that matter," I shared a glare with the whole group, "And it will stay that way."

"Who was that man, Fuyudori?" Kakashi asked, all serious now.

"Him? He's—" Evil. An ass. Someone you don't want to know. Strong as anything. "—someone I knew before I came here."

"He's from the Mist."

"And?"

"Were you from—" But before he could ask anything else, I smelt another presence.

Throwing a kunai knife—one of my own—into the woods, I called out in a bark, "Show yourself, loser; I know you're out there."

A tall jounin stepped out from behind the tall oak I had hit with my kunai. He had bowl-cut black hair and a friendly grin on his face.

"You noticed before Kakashi! A point for the new girl?" the jounin looked questioningly at Kakashi, before turning back to me. His team stepped out from behind some other trees.

"Damn," I thought belatedly about my ears. They didn't look surprised, but they hadn't been behind the trees too long to have heard anything useful to them. They all had Leaf headbands like the one I had tied around my neck.

"What's your name, miss?" the tall man asked as he walked up and bowed.

"None of your business, arse," I snarled, showing my teeth—the canines had grown large, if I forgot to mention that, as they do when I am royally pissed—and glared. He didn't seem to get the message and walked straight up to Kakashi.

"Is she yours?" he asked easily, as if this was a normal question.

"No, and I don't think you should say anything else on the matter, since it looks like you have already made her angry," the shanobi of team seven told the new guy easily. I knew my face was distorted with anger, though all I remember being angry about was the fact that even more people knew…oh, and Fuyudori…and that some jounin knew about how Hokage came upon me…looks like I was building quite a list today.

I turned to the other team captain and asked heatedly, "What's _your_ name, if you don't mind my asking."

"Gai," both Kakashi and the shanobi said simultaneously. I looked from Kakashi to the man across the field with the ridiculous hair. No longer worried about these people and my ears, I asked seriously, "So I'm guessing you both know each other well?"

_They_ traded looks and Gai ended up saying sheepishly, "Yes, we do know each other well."

I grinned a little too wide, because Kakashi elaborated, "We're rivals, and…best friends."

"Not used to the word?" I asked, but he ignored me.

"Gai, we have to get back to training."

"This is more interesting than training any day! Who _is_ this girl?"

"_This girl_ is standing right in front of you!" I screamed. In fact, I had run for him to fast that he didn't see me until I was standing right in front of him. "And I am Oki Farlain, shanobi and black—"

I stopped just at the last minute, searching the trees behind Gai. _There._

Narrowing my eyes, I shot out at the hidden person—nin—and had whomever-it-was trapped before he could have even seen me leave.

"How's the weather?" I asked conversationally. "Maybe this afternoon will be a little more…bloody?"

He shivered at the implied action—come on, he was just a kid, probably just a chuunin—and tried to struggle.

"Aw, this almost makes me feel bad about having to hand you in…almost," I whispered into his ear. At this time, Kakashi and Gai were already over here and ready for anyone else that might be around. "There's no one else."

"Are you sure?" Gai asked skeptically.

"Positive."

The chuunin glanced over at the leaf chuunin. "Don't even think about it."

"Today's turning out to be more exciting than yesterday," Kakashi commented in his always-seems-like-I'm-smiling voice of his. I purred in my delight and smiled, showing all of my teeth. The Mist chuunin I was holding didn't even seem scared anymore, which was wise of him. Animals could tell if you were afraid—and I could too.

"Given up?" I purred into his ear.

"No," his half-into-puberty voice replied, and suddenly he had a kunai in his hand, about to thrust it into my side. Oops.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you. If I am injured, I know many ways to make it up to you, and some of them you know," I whispered too low for Kakashi and Gai—who both got ready if he used the kunai—to hear, "And some of them you don't."

"Not if I kill you first."

"Then stop talking and do it."

"Traitor! Traitor to the Mist!" he screamed, flailing in my arms. This wasn't all that ninja-like, so I guessed he just had a message for me. Kill the messenger, go ahead.

"Boy," I whispered, just loud enough so that Kakashi's and Gai's students could hear—they had walked over—"You have a slight chance of getting out of here alive, so you best be answering all my questions. What is the message?"

He seemed surprised that I had guessed that right away. "There is no message."

"There is if they sent you," I hissed, tightening my grip—I had snatched his kunai and was now using it to threaten him.

"There is no message for the ears of Leaf!" he screamed.

"Then there is no message for me," I cooed. "Since I am an 'ear of the Leaf.'"

"You are a traitor to all villages you reside in!" he seemed to want to make it clear to everyone. "They still tell stories of the weak traitor!"

"I ain't weak anymore, now am I?" I asked, tightening my grip some more, making him feel it. He still didn't cry out. Whipping my head up, I looked to the two teachers, "I'm going to have to take him to Hokage…to have a little _chat_ with him."

They got my drift and nodded in unison. The students all looked confused except for one, who had perfectly white eyes. Hyuga.

Not thinking about it too deeply, I bolted off to the village, the chuunin in my grasp not struggling as much anymore—resigned to his fate. His kunai was still in my hand, around his own throat.

"Hokage Tsunade," I bowed once I was there. She had been training in the inner courtyard of the main house. My bow forced the Mist to bow as well—and as you can guess, he didn't like that very much.

"Ah, Oki, who do you have there?" she looked pleasantly surprised at my captive.

"Just another Mist."

"Traitor," his hissed under his breath.

"This one should be more talkative once I get a few hours with him," I explained after forcing one of his arms—which my other hand had control over—higher behind his back. She nodded.

"You know where to go," she said dismissively, getting back to her training.

I nodded even though she was already back fighting with whomever she had before I came with the Mist.

I sat the poor boy down in a chair that sat directly in the room—empty except for the cabinet in the corner, which held some instruments that I don't normally carry around, but needed for the things I would be doing.

"If you answer my questions truthfully, I might not have to hurt you," I whispered from behind him. He couldn't see me as I blindfolded him and tied him down—the little guy struggled bravely, yet couldn't get free; no surprise there—and only heard my voice. He finally shivered in fear.

"There, be smart and show it. Tell me, who sent you?" But he wouldn't give, so I walked over to the cabinet and made sure he could hear me open the damn thing. Pulling out a small ice-pick-looking thing, I walked back over. "I will only ask you once more before the pain will begin. Who sent you?"

But still, he held. The pick was razor-sharp around the edges, making it a cutting and stabbing utensil. "I warned you."

A light cut on the inside of his arm, as close to the armpit as I could get without actually being in the armpit, in that soft, undamaged skin. Smiling, I slashed three times in the same place.

"Come on, tell me and this will all end…for now." He kept his silence. "You know I won't let you faint. I am too skilled for something as fickle as passing out to help my quarry."


End file.
